Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A Bit Of A Soapbox Moment

Raining, actually pouring, with thunder, lightening and wind. This all started about 7am and the electric promptly went off at 7:30am ( back on again by 11:15). I think our electric grid is made of popsicle sticks and twine. The slightest breeze and we go black.

Still made it to the Vet with Elliot this morning to get an update on his itchy skin. He's doing much better and stays closer to the house and actually comes inside without being carried in. He also has been kind to the screen windows and not ripped any out lately. He eats well and seeks us out for attention and petting. Before he was in some sort of self-imposed exile in the back yard.

Not much stitching at all lately. I am feeling some sort of "Seasonal ADD". Vonna has a great post about this topic on her blog. I keep cleaning, shifting and rearranging stuff, but nothing gets done. I've cut out a bunch of doll clothes, but haven't stitched any together yet. I've kitted-up three or four Prairie Schoolers to take with me to New Jersey on the 14th, but again, not a stitch taken on any other design. I wake up some mornings not knowing whether I should do Spring cleaning, dye Easter eggs, or set up the Christmas tree. These should be the joyous days of Summer. I remember August as a kid.....day after day of endless fun in the sun. Now it's just day after day of anxiety and confusion.Speaking of confusion......still can't get a darn photo to upload here. I wanted to do another "Rain and Royalty" post and show some photos of an interesting and not-so-well-known Royal lady. I also have tons of photos of the animals and their latest antics, not to mention the new hardwood flooring we put down in the computer/craft room. Another "Freebie" like our vinyl siding. A neighbor, who has more money then sense, got tired of the color of the hardwood flooring in their house and hired Joe to tear it up and replace it with some bamboo stuff. Joe managed to save all the old ( but amazingly lovely) cherrywood and reinstalled it in our house. Our vinyl siding job of last Summer came of another neighbor's house who was tired of plain white siding. OK, maybe if I had money to throw around I'd tear up/off perfectly good household surfaces and redo them for no other reason then my own whim/boredom. And we wonder why our country is falling apart economically ( not to mention ethically!). It's just so against my grain to toss perfectly good items just to get the "new and improved" version of everything. I will use this soapbox moment to mention my annoyance with the whole conversion to HDTV thing. In the midst of the violent thunderstorm I go to check the weather radar on the little TV in the bedroom, knowing perfectly well that the satellite on the downstairs TV instantly fails as soon as a raindrop touches it. But guess what...no more upstairs TV, just the fuzzy, snowy screen because of the "big switch" to 'Bigger, Better, Clearer HDTV.' Who cares if it's clearer if I can't see a d#%* thing anyway when the satellite is out. So run out America, run, run run to buy, buy, buy a bigger and better TV or a converter box. Yes there's a recession ( and TWO wars also!!) but we need to upgrade our TVs to make the World a better place. There's something wrong here. Somewhere in Afghanistan Ben-Laden is laughing his ass off while we watch HDTV!